Motorsports

Furniture Row Racing even more interesting with Kurt Busch driving

Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet, is equally well known for his considerable talent and volatile temper. (Christian Petersen, Getty Images)

You no longer have to pick through NASCAR's media guide or website to find an inkling of information about Furniture Row Racing, the only Sprint Cup team based west of the Mississippi River.

Team owner Barney Visser and manager Joe Garone still choose to live in Colorado, where they were born, but nobody is ignoring what they're trying to do. Respect for the Denver-based team arrived slowly from the drivers and teams, and from the sport's hierarchy in the southeast. Ultimately, FRR was perceived as a legitimate Sprint Cup Series competitor with an interesting birthmark on its rear bumper.

That happened before Kurt Busch was hired to drive the No. 78 Chevrolet near the end of this past season. But now, with the addition of the 24-time race winner and 2004 series champion, FRR has become as popular as Tim Tebow in Tennessee. (Tebow played for the University of Florida, the Volunteers' top SEC rival.)

NASCAR Nation may not like FRR, but it can't stop talking about the trailblazing team that took root at Colorado National Speedway and now features the sport's premier bad boy as its frontman.

"Anyone with (access) in the garage knew Furniture Row Racing was a diamond in the rough," Busch said last week.

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Busch, 34, is now the sandpaper trying to smooth FRR's ride to consistent top 10 finishes, and he did that exceptionally well at season's end. The man who was fired by Roger Penske after the 2011 season for verbally abusing a reporter — the type of situation he has found himself in often throughout his 14-year Cup career — was in position to win every race with FRR. In his last three he finished eighth, eighth and ninth, becoming the first FRR driver to produce three consecutive top 10 finishes.

Visser — the longtime furniture retailer who got his need for speed after beginning semi-retirement by learning how to race at Colorado National — is thrilled to have what many believe is one of the sport's most talented drivers, and certainly its most controversial.

"I'm probably not as personality-driven as I am performance-driven, but I also think Kurt has come around. He's learned some hard lessons in life, and I think he's prepared to make the necessary changes, and he has made them," Visser told The Denver Post. "There may always be an issue with the media, but I think at the core, Kurt is a really good guy."

Fireworks for dynamite

FRR has started 239 Cup races since 2005. Busch is the fourth full-time driver, and ninth overall. Regan Smith drove FRR to its lone victory, in May 2011 at Darlington, S.C., and all 11 of the team's top-10 finishes have come in the past two years — the last three by Busch.

"Barney is committed to having a successful race team and to have his cars run up front," Busch said. "I'm an intense competitor who wants to run up front and win. I always give it my all. Barney hired me to be his wheel man, and I am going to do everything possible to get the job done."

Compared to Smith, FRR has traded firecrackers for dynamite. When's the next explosion?

"It will happen," Garone said of Busch's well-documented temper.

Garone, a Denver North graduate, said there will always be tempers when guys are competing for money and fame in "130-degree temperatures for three hours."

What to do? "We have plans in place," Garone said.

One of them is enlisting the help of spotter Rick Carelli, a Denver native and former Colorado National star who went on to regional NASCAR success before moving to North Carolina to work for Cup driver Kevin Harvick, a California native. Busch was born and raised in Las Vegas, and his first idol was Carelli. Carelli, 58, was dubbed the High Plains Drifter, coined after a Clint Eastwood movie.

"HPD. That's our acronym for him," Busch said of Carelli. "Growing up as a fan and race car driver in Las Vegas, you knew about Rick and his driving talents. I've always admired him. He knew how to wheel a race car, and more important — he knew how to win. He's a great spotter and has been a calming effect on me during the race."

The blown Dodge deal

After being fired by Penske, which won his first Cup championship last month with Brad Keselowski — Busch's former teammate — Busch joined low-budget Phoenix Racing to begin the 2012 season. He was impressive from the get-go, but blown engines, transmission problems and poor pit stops prevented him from winning.

Garone and Visser, knowing they had more to offer than Phoenix Racing, began to recruit Busch as a teammate to Smith, with plans to ultimately switch from Chevy to Dodge and become Dodge's premier multiple-car team, replacing Penske in 2013.

But before a deal was struck with Busch, Dodge told FRR it would not field cars in 2013. Garone and Visser weren't comfortable with creating a two-car Chevy team. But they still wanted Busch, the good, the bad and the ugly, and chose him over Smith, who is not one to make waves.

Smith, who did not reply to an interview request, has signed on to drive for Hendrick/Earnhardt in the Nationwide Series next year. Visser realizes he traded a sponsor's dream (Smith) for a sponsor's nightmare (Busch).

"We both grew and learned a lot together," Visser said of Smith. "I think it's going to work out well for him, and I think Kurt is going to work out well for us."

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